Of Mice and Men Curley Quotes

“I’ll try to catch him,” said Curley. His eyes passed over the new men and he stopped. He glanced coldly at George and then at Lennie. His arms gradually bent at the elbows and his hands closed into fists. He stiffened and went into a slight crouch. His glance was at once calculating and pugnacious. Lennie squirmed under the look and shifted his feet nervously. Curley stepped gingerly close to him. “You the new guys the old man was waitin’ for?”

– John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men, Chapter 2. Curley is a short aggressive man who feels he always has to prove himself because of his size. He has a built-in readiness to fight.

“Curley’s like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys. He’s alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like he’s mad at ’em because he ain’t a big guy. You seen little guys like that, ain’t you? Always scrappy?”

– John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men, Chapter 2. Candy explains about Curley to George. Curley looks to assert his manliness by fighting. But his victims are always more vulnerable in some way than him. He takes an immediate dislike to Lennie because he is such a huge guy and attacks him in the bunk house.

“Well, Curley’s pretty handy,” the swamper said skeptically. “Never did seem right to me. S’pose Curley jumps a big guy an’ licks him. Ever’body says what a game guy Curley is. And s’pose he does the same thing and gets licked. Then ever’body says the big guy oughtta pick on somebody his own size, and maybe they gang up on the big guy. Never did seem right to me. Seem like Curley ain’t givin’ nobody a chance.

– John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men, Chapter 2. Candy on Curley, who goes after Lennie because he is big and he doesn’t expect him to fight back. Curley sees Lennie’s vulnerability and abuses it right away.

Carlson laughed. “You God damn punk,” he said. You tried to throw a scare into Slim, an’ you couldn’t make it stick. Slim throwed a scare inta you. You’re yella as a frog belly. I don’t care if you’re the best welter in the country. You come for me, an’ I’ll kick your God damn head off.”
Candy joined the attack with joy, “Glove fulla vaseline,” he said disgustedly. Curley flared at him. His eyes slipped on past and lighted on Lennie; and Lennie was still smiling with delight at the memory of the ranch.

– John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men, Chapter 3. Candy is verbally attacked by the other men because they recognize how much of a coward and bully he is and only picks on people who can’t retaliate.

I think you got your han’ caught in a machine. If you don’t tell nobody what happened, we ain’t going to. But you jus’ tell an’ try to get this guy canned and we’ll tell ever’body, an’ then will you get the laugh.

– John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men, Chapter 3. After Lennie crushes Curley’s hand, Slim tells Curley what to do – say the injury was the result of an accident with a machine. If it were discovered that Lennie had injured Curley, Lennie would likely have been fired.
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